Budget better, but SF teachers still get pink slips

Once again, pink slips will be hitting teaching mailboxes in the next couple of week with 141 teachers or administrators and 68 aides getting a layoff notice.

The San Francisco school board approved the layoff list Tuesday night in what the seven members described as the toughest vote of the year.

District administrators noted that the situation is a lot better than last year when 485 pink slips went out by the state’s March 15 deadline to notify teachers of a potential layoff.

On the plus side this year, no elementary school teachers will be getting a notice given anticipated attrition.

Still, a few board members questioned the need for any layoffs given the improved state budget and the fact that other districts, including Los Angeles Unified won’t be issuing any notices this year.

In short, the district needs flexibility until budget numbers are more certain in terms of enrollment and the need of specific teachers at the middle and high schools, officials said. Some 10 art teachers, for example, are on the layoff list, but could be asked back if individual school sites decide they want them.

Each school has some independent flexibility to decide how to spend their allocated budget and those decisions haven’t been made yet, district officials said Tuesday.

The timing doesn’t work given the March 15 deadline, Superintendent Richard Carranza said.

But layoff notices can be and will be rescinded as soon as there is more certainty in funding and staffing needs.

On top of the annual uncertainty, federal School Improvement Grant funding is running out this year, money that has paid for 36 positions in nine schools. Those positions are also on the layoff list this year.

Still, teachers union President Dennis Kelly urged the board to vote no, arguing that the layoff notices devastate teachers and the majority have been rescinded in years past.

“You have to consider whether you even have to do this,” he said. “Any one of these notifications is too many.”

Board members voted 5 to 2 to approve the layoff notices, with teacher-union-endorsed Kim-Shree Maufas and Matt Haney voting no.